Arianna Huffington Should Recognize a Good Smear Campaign When She Sees One

Unsheathed ^ | 09/08/09 | Patrick S Adams

[Cecilia Trent]

Arianna Huffington thinks Van Jones was forced to resign because of a smear campaign. It's unfortunate that Ms. Huffington missed this one. She's an intelligent woman who has run for president and is also a successful and capable businesswoman. But, repeating Van Jones' own words for all the world to hear is different than repeating others' negative words and rumors about someone. That's the difference between reporting the truth and engaging in a smear campaign.

A smear campaign, Ms. Huffington, is when you employ bloggers to distort the words and record of someone. Let's see if any famous smear campaigns come to mind. To quote my high school math teacher, "let's pick someone at random," Palin.

Here's how a smear campaign works:

Let's just say for argument sake that the Huffington Post had been front and center of a smear campaign that resulted in getting a governor of a large state to resign. A blogger, let's call her Shannyn Moore, relentlessly writes hit pieces on the Governor and draws attention to a small gaggle of fellow bloggers who drum up unsubstantiated stories about divorces, federal indictments and the maternity of a child. The bigger the lies, the better.

[Brandonmark]

Huffington Post: “I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gf8NK1WAOc

[Rummyfan]

Arianna Huffington thinks Van Jones was forced to resign because of a smear campaign. It's unfortunate that Ms. Huffington missed this one. She's an intelligent woman who has run for president and is also a successful and capable businesswoman.

The author lost me here:
- Arianna Huffington ran for governor of California. I must have missed her presidential campaign...
- Successful businesswoman? I thought she was in academe before meeting her rich (Huffington Oil) husband ... who subsequently came out of the closet and left her. Of course she kept the name....

[kcvl]

I think Arianna Huffington just got her butt kicked.

[cranked]

And quite nicely I must say.

[Allegra]

Yes, I rather enjoyed that.

She had it coming.

[gman992]

“She’s an intelligent woman who has run for president and is also a successful and capable businesswoman...”

Isn’t that in itself, a smear?

[Venturer]

She is a foreign slut, who married for money, and believes someone gives a good crap about what she thinks.

[Conservative Vermont Vet]

That's what you call (better than) "nailing it!"

Oh, my, did that hurt, Ari-Airhead???